KATHMANDU, July 29: The tripartite agreement between Nepal, India and Bangladesh for cross-border electricity trade, which was scheduled to be inked on Sunday, has been halted.

Nabin Raj Singh, spokesperson for the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation (MoEWRI), informed that the scheduled agreement has been halted after authorities from Bangladesh expressed their inability to attend the tripartite meeting showing the student-led protests in Bangladesh. The recent deadly nation-wide protests against government job quotas claimed the lives of as many as 174 individuals in Bangladesh.

Earlier, Union Power Minister of India, Manohar Lal Khattar, and State Minister of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources of Bangladesh, Nasrul Hamid, were scheduled to visit Nepal to ink the agreement. MoEWRI Spokesperson Singh said another date for signing the agreement will be fixed soon.

Bangladesh has been consistently showing an interest in purchasing electricity from Nepal. In the initial stage, Nepal has agreed to export 40 MW of electricity daily to Bangladesh during the monsoon season, spanning five months each year.